Improvement in guard-fingers for harvesters



. s. COPELAND.

Guard F inger' for-Harvesters.

Patented May 16, 1865.

I f rz'venian- UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

SALEM COPELAND, OF WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT m GUARD-FINGERS FOR HARV'ESTERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 47,702, dated May 16, 1865.

. Figure 1 represents a perspective view of my guard-finger before the steel plate is inserted therein. Fig. 2 represents a similar view of the same when the steel plate is inserted. Fig. 3 represents a longitudinal vertical section through the guard-finger. Fig. 4 represents a top view of the steel plate.

The present invention is an improvement onmy guard-finger patented February 19, 1861, and has for its object. to reduce the weight thereof andto make its several parts of a more uniform thickness of metal, so as to facilitate the process of annealing.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

A represents the body of the guard-finger, whose rear part, a, is to be secured to the finger-beam by means of rivets or bolts,which are passed through the'holes 2.

1) represents the top of the guard-finger, and c the steel plate, which is provided with cutting-edges, and against which the vibrating cutter-blades of the sickle-bar operate. The edges 3 of the steel plate 0 arebeveled, and

. the plate is slit in to the guard-finger between the dovetailed projectione, and the point 5 of the plate enters a suitable recess in the body of the guard-finger, and the plate, when properly inserted, is thus held firmly. To secure it permanently to the guard-finger it is fasttened thereto by means of a rivet, d, which,

on the guard-fingers used heretofore, extends through the entire thickness of the guardiinger. In making the guard-finger solid where the rivet passes through it, the metal thickness at that point far exceeds that of any other part, and thus presents an obstacle in;

annealing, besides unnecessarily increasing its weight. To avoid this I have cored out the finger at G, leaving a bridge, 9, standing, through which the rivet d is passed, as shown at Fig. 3, and to support this bridge properly I provide an inclined brace, h, on the inner side of the bridge, and thus all parts are made of sufficient strength, considerably lighter in weight, and approximating a .more uniform thickness than is the case in a solid guardfinger. The weight of the guard-finger is reduced not only in proportion to the cored-out part, but also to the extent towhich the length of the rivet d is reduced. To secure the steel plate a, it isinserted into'the guard-finger, and the latter is then placed upon a suitably-shaped anvil, which enters the recess G under the head of the rivet d, and whereby the bridge 9 is well sustained while the rivet is being headed down.

Having thus fully described the nature of my invention, what I claim herein as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. Goring out the rear of the guard-finger, in combination with fastening the steel plate by a short rivet to secure lightness and greater uniformity in the metal thickness of the guard, in the mannerherein described.

2. Goring out the rear of the guard-finger,

in combination with supporting the bridge 1 by an inclined brace, h, substantially as and for the purposes described.

SALEM COPELAND.

Witnesses:

Tnos. H. DODGE,

J. HENRY HILL. 

